Hours
by Cyn V
Summary: It was the beginning of Obito's beautiful friendship with Kakashi - although neither boy quite knew that yet.
1. Hours

**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ (c) Kishimoto and probably some other Japanese companies whose names I don't know.  
A/N: Enjoy!**

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**Hours**

The shrill ringing of the alarm clock as it reached twelve o'clock caught the trio sitting at the training field by surprise. They had completely forgotten that they had activated it hours ago.

Minato Namikaze shut it off and jumped onto one of the logs used for target practice, letting his gaze sweep the surrounding area. He could see another team practicing some distance away, but there were no signs whatsoever of any black-haired Uchiha genins in the vicinity. Sighing in disappointment, the seventeen-year-old jounin dropped back to where his two other students were waiting.

Kakashi was pacing the length along the three logs in what could only be described as irritation. He was far from his usual impassive self and his narrowed eyes were a disturbing - if inspiring - sight to behold. Minato, who had been tutoring Kakashi for some time, was both pleased that the new team was already having an effect on the boy's cold exterior and fearful for what those eyes promised for the young Uchiha when the two finally met.

His other student, newly appointed, was sitting at the base of one of the logs, quietly watching the trails of smoke coming out of Kakashi's ears with a degree of trepidation. Her name was Rin and Minato, thinking that she could use some distracting, sat down next to her in hopes of learning more about his new charge.

Their chat was slightly awkward - the jounin had just about forgotten how to talk to children her age, after dealing with Kakashi for so long - but enlightening. He found that she was very mature for her age, but, at the same time, not above having a crush on her new silver-haired teammate.

Minato filed the information away as something he might have to address in the future, but was not overly concerned about it hindering their teamwork. Rin was a smart girl who had a lot of potential. Even though Kakashi had easily brought her down during that morning's evaluation practice, she had still proven that she had some interesting tricks up her sleeve.

Their mild conversation was interrupted when Kakashi suddenly stopped in his tracks and menacingly clenched his fists.

"Kakashi?" Minato prompted, unsure of what to expect from his student.

"This is inadmissible behaviour!" he shouted in an uncharacteristic burst of emotion. "We've been here since seven in the morning - it's now noon and this... this Obito still hasn't shown up! This shows nothing but complete disregard for duty, sensei! You should file a request that this person be sent back to the Academy at once! He clearly lacks the necessary qualities to become a ninja."

Minato would have found the seven-year-old's exasperated rant cute, if not for the fact that said seven-year-old was a deadly fighter he had trained himself. He scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out what to say. Technically speaking, Kakashi was right, but the teacher also knew that intransigence was not the way to proceed in this situation.

"Remember what we talked about before, Kakashi? Obito and Rin have just graduated, so you're going to have to be a little bit extra patient for the time being." He then turned to the only one of them who had actually met the Uchiha. "Was Obito ever this late to get to classes, Rin?"

The brunette girl looked to the ground in embarrassment, not wanting to say anything that might make her friend look bad on his first day, but somehow Minato got the message: "yes", it said. Minato looked down at the grass too - he had known to expect trouble when he had taken on a team with fresh genin, but he had never expected to have to deal with this particular brand of difficulty.

"All right," he decided. "You two can go on home, training is dismissed. I'm going to see if I can track down Obito. We will meet here again same time tomorrow." The jounin got a pair of nods and farewells, before the two disappeared from sight. He sighed once again before leaving the field himself, hoping that nothing bad had happened to the kid he was now responsible for.

And so it was that Obito arrived at the training grounds shortly afterwards, already half-way through an excuse for being late, only to be met by a forgotten clock. It was also the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Kakashi - although neither boy quite knew that yet.


	2. Family

**A/N: I wasn't sure whether to upload these next two ficlets independently or not, but since they do follow the events of "Hours", here they are. Thank you to everyone who reviewed "Hours"! I hope you enjoy this as well. ^^  
Summary_:_ It was an old excuse from the Academy and it had never failed to make the kunoichi who taught the early lessons melt. It should work on his mother...**

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**Family**

When Obito found that the training field where his team was supposed to meet for the first time was empty, he had quickly made his way over to Rin's house. Thoughts that they might have gone somewhere without him were running through his head and his palms were already sweating as he tried to conjure up some kind of super explanation that would get him out of all trouble.

His brothers - his older brothers who never wanted anything to do with him - had invited him to hang out with them and some friends and he just hadn't been able to say no. He had always been seen as the embarrassing baby, the one their parents were always pushing on them to take along, and they'd rather be seen with pink hair in public than with him on their tail. Even their younger sister didn't get that treatment because she was the only girl. But now that he had been made a genin and earned his own forehead protector, everything had changed. It was like he'd passed some grand rite of initiation and earned the right to be called "cool" overnight.

To his great relief, Rin had been home and told him that their teacher had simply dismissed the team for the day. She told him what he had missed, about their teacher and other teammate, and finished off with a rebuke and a warning to be on time the next day which Obito only half-listened to (he was focusing on how great Rin was, watching out for him like that). Glad that they hadn't done anything too important yet and that apparently their new teacher hadn't been too upset, Obito had thanked her and gone back home.

Like a hawk descending on an unsuspecting little mouse, his mother intercepted him half-way up the stairs to his room.

"Obito Uchiha! Your teacher came by to see me today, asking about why you had missed practice," she yelled. She was standing one step above him, making her slight figure all the more imposing and her shrill voice all the more piercing. "Where were you?!"

If he said that his brothers had dragged him off to the dango shop, it was almost a sure bet that they would never let him go out with them again.

"I found an old lady on my way who was carrying loads of bags and I had to stop to help her, mum..."

He didn't think he'd ever used that excuse on her before. It was an old one from the Academy and it had never failed to make the kunoichi who taught the early lessons melt at the words. He hoped it would have the same effect on his mother, but the fact her eyes were slowly narrowing was making him doubt that.

"Go to your room! Now!!" she exploded. "And this had better not happen again, young man!"

"Sure," he squeaked and happily fled up the stairs, ducking under his mother's outstretched arm pointed at the door labeled "Obito". He was too scared to look up from the floorboards - when she was in a rage like this, it was better not to look into those black eyes! - so he missed the slight smile that blossomed on her face and exasperated shake of the head as she saw him run for safety.

She'd have to have a talk with her other sons.


	3. Shade

**A/N: This one's a bit more serious than the other two. I'm almost sorry for making Kakashi so much of a bastard, but I wouldn't love him as much if he had been any different as a kid. (This is a semi-apology to his fans.) If you want to keep reading about Obito's adventures with his team, I suggest you check out my other fic "Five times Obito made friends with Kakashi" if you haven't already. You can look at it as a sort of sequel to this. Enjoy! ^^  
****Summary:** Kakashi (finally) meets Obito.

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**Shade**

The art of concealment was one of the subjects trainees spent the most time studying in the Ninja Academy. Knowing how to use their surroundings to keep themselves out of sight, how to move silently and to creep up on an enemy to take him by surprise were among the most important skills for a young ninja to master. After all, choosing one's battles and avoiding the rest was the only way for them to survive the war long enough to grow into jounin.

Therefore, Kakashi's first opinion of Obito Uchiha even before he laid eyes on him was that he was going to get them all killed.

Obito was running through the forest where Minato, Kakashi and Rin had already started their exercises. It was their second day as a team, but they had yet to meet the Uchiha due to his bad habit of showing up late (unaware of this fact, their teacher had canceled training before he could arrive the previous day). Hiding high up in a tree overlooking the clearing at the center of the training grounds, Kakashi flinched as one branch after another snapped under the new arrival's feet. His breath was so loud, it was scaring the wildlife away and the kunai holster strapped to his leg was so loose, Kakashi could just count the number of weapons jingling inside it.

Obito Uchiha was an idiot, he decided. And he had yet to even see what he looked like.

When the genin finally left the cover of the trees, Kakashi was presented with the sight of a nine-year-old with black hair and orange goggles. That alone would have made the already chuunin groan - _"what kind of idiot would willingly impair their eyesight?"_ - but the presence of the distasteful colour on the clothes as well almost had him wishing that he had a little less self-control so he could bash his head against the tree trunk.

They were so, so dead.

Standing all alone in the clearing, Obito looked confused for a moment before slumping down beside the training logs. "Aw, man, not again!"

Kakashi could hear his teacher speaking a little way into the woods - probably explaining something to Rin - so he figured that it was up to him to pass on the information about what they were doing to his new teammate. (Minato could deal with the welcomes.)

"Hey, idiot," he called out from his perch. Black eyes zeroed in on him and Kakashi was semi-pleased that at least his hearing seemed to work. "You're late."

"And who the hell are you, bastard?" Obito replied, not one to take insults lying down.

"Kakashi Hatake, your new teammate. Now get your ass over here."

Obito's eyes were narrowed. On the one hand, the kid wasn't scoring any points in his sympathy book, but on the other, he recognised the name he'd been given. Kakashi Hatake had been a legend in the Academy: he'd graduated at age five and gotten promoted to chuunin at six. Obito had always looked forward to meeting the genius and hoped to one day become as good as him.

"I'm Obito," he said, hoping to make peace for the name-calling. "I'm one of the..."

"... Biggest idiots I've ever seen," Kakashi finished for him. "I really don't care about what you have to say. You're late, you're loud and you're wearing orange. I also know you graduated with the lowest scores from the Academy this year and probably wouldn't even be here if it weren't for your last name."

Kakashi was indifferent as he delivered his little speech. He didn't add any provocative gestures and his eyes never went beyond their usual half-lidded stare, but somehow those only made the insults harder to bear. The red-faced Uchiha was so enraged he had not even thought to respond yet, but Kakashi was not done talking.

"You can fail as a ninja as much as you want, but try not to drag the rest of us down. Now get over here."

"Why you..." he tried to say, but got interrupted for the second time that day.

"Obito? Obito Uchiha?" A friendly-looking blond with a standard issue vest asked, as he made his way into the clearing. Rin followed and, at the sight of her warm smile, all of Obito's aggravation was drained away.

"I see you've met your teammates. I'm Minato Namikaze, your jounin instructor. Welcome to the team."

Obito instantly liked the man (he hadn't even asked about why he was late!) and could tell that despite all the horrible things the so-called genius had thrown in his face, his teacher didn't share those opinions. Being close to Rin was also a huge plus. He definitely would not let anything his third teammate (or his family) said keep him from doing his best and becoming a great ninja.

He'd deal with the still glaring white-haired bastard soon enough and show him just what he was made of.


End file.
